Can the poet avoid the Sword of Damocles
Suspended above his head
By the thinnest thread?
His pleas
To those who he has offended
That he is merely speaking the truth
Will not prevent
The descent
Of sword from roof.

The poet’s curse
Is to write verse
That will
Sometimes chill
His readers to the heart.
They will traduce
Him for his art,
But the sword of truth
He must brandish high
Else he will die

The annual Halloween fancy dress ball set in a candle-lit cave in the Forest of Dean was a must-do event in the social calendar. Defined as a ‘Spice Classic’, it was a firm favourite which would sell out within weeks of being advertised.

We cannot take the credit for finding this awesome venue; by the time we took over our particular Spice group the event had been running for a number of years. Our predecessor had procured the most basic of accommodation and for the first two years of our tenure we stuck it out in a dismal, grimy youth hostel, complete with single sex dorms and chewing gum encrusted bunk beds. Most of the old school members liked its communal feel; we had the entire venue to ourselves and there was a huge dining area for breakfasts, suppers and for general chats and costume adjustments…

So first, just in case you wouldn’t know what playing cadavre exquis means, here is how it works… I start a story of my choice. I then send my last sentence to the next writer that knows nothing about what I have writen except that one sentence! When I get writer #2’s part, I send his/her last sentence to writer # 3, and so on, until I have all the pieces of the puzzle.

Youtube is my go-to place for … well, just about everything. Youtube is a wonder and one of its most wondrous gifts is the ability it gives you, the viewer, to travel anyplace in the world you would like to go, and you don’t need a dime. The #1 thing on my bucket list is to travel the world. But since I can’t afford to literally hop all over the world on a whim, I can still get a pretty good facsimile of the real thing by taking a virtual road trip on Youtube.

You can take a virtual road trip almost anywhere in the world on Youtube. Just type in “driving in” or “driving to” [fill in country, state or city].” Chances are, there is a video taken from someone’s dashcam of the actual road trip. Many of these are accompanied by music. Obvously, some are much higher quality…

If we should be asked the question “what is in your cup?” our minds would automatically gravitate to contents that usually occupy a cup, such as, water, coffee, alcohol, etc. However, the question is being posed for us to take a deeper introspection of our lives.

A story was told of a man carrying a cup of coffee. As he walked someone, accidentally collided with him and the coffee was spilled making a colossal mess. When asked why he spilled his coffee his initial reaction was to blame the person who bumped into him saying that it was his fault that his coffee was spilled. However, truth be told if he carefully analyzed the question he would realize that the coffee was spilled because coffee was in his cup. Whatever the contents of his cup was that is what would have spilled with any collision. It went on to explain that…

This month I’m once again participating in the linkup with the lovely Sheryl from A Chronic Voice. Her prompts always make me think, and this month’s were no exception. If you’d like to participate, please check it out here.

This month’s prompts:

Do you ever have trouble adapting to change? I know I do sometimes. People who live with chronic illnesses often have to spend a lot of time adapting: to a “new normal,” to different ways of doing things we used to do without thinking, to physical challenges, to energy deficits….the list goes on. As I thought about this though, I realized that life in general is a process of adapting to different circumstances. We go through many different stages in our lives and as we enter each stage, in order to live well and enjoy our lives, we have to adapt to changes that particular stage brings with…